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Rating: How can you not have an album like the one from Mad Season? How do today's kids tolerate their adolescence without grunge? Without the destructive myths lived through alcohol, drugs, and violence, martyrs condemned to a brief existence, destined never to be forgotten. How can you manage to listen to today's rock, without having lived through the 90s?
Seattle was the center of the world. From there came the cries of anger and fear of a devastated generation. And there, a new tower of Babel was built. It was the only way to stay alive, and it was also the only way not to be wiped out. Seattle was a dark and cold city, on which the ghost of Hendrix still extended its powerful fingers to take away children to bring with it, to another world, to another dimension where time does not exist, where pains do not exist. Layne Staley, Mike McCready, John Baker Saunders, and Barrett Martin had too many problems. Playing in their bands was like having the weight of the world on their shoulders, keeping up with the dreams and illusions of thousands of young people was not easy. It wasn't if you were the singer of Alice in Chains, nor was it if you played with Pearl Jam or Screaming Trees.
Poor arms and poor skin, tortured by needles and synthetic liquids, poor stomach, prisoner of alcohol and pills! Mad Season was born one day in 1994, near a rehab center. Layne was a master at coming in and out of addiction and had a wonderful voice, so when McCready and Saunders proposed to form an impromptu band, he couldn't say no. Martin, who had practically played with everyone in America, was at the time the drummer of Screaming Trees, his involvement aroused the suspicion of Mark Lanegan, who then decided to sing something as well. Before and after the release of Mad Season, the band lived through a good period. They were all pleased and surprised by the success of their union. They were sober, the concerts were beautiful, the songs were magical, the group's cohesion left no doubts, they were made for each other. In these conditions, ten days to record the first (and only) album were enough.
Both the public and the press received the album with great acclaim. River Of Deceit is a gem, delicate and suffused like a jazz song, delighting the listening of anyone, sinking its roots in the texts of K.Gibran and in a refined 70s melody. I’m Above, Artificial Red, and Lifeless Dead are instead the other side of the coin, navigating dark waters, exploring dark and stormy territories, with Lanegan's voice coming in to contrast that of Layne, on steep prairies and overflowing seas with a sound that from afar recalls Pearl Jam. All Alone is an expected and desolate conclusion of the album, it is the god that destroys Seattle, and its tower of Babel, scattering Mad Season far from themselves and the world, leaving them alone, in their despair and their infinite beauty.
A few months after the album's release, everyone returned to their respective bands: Layne Staley reunited with Jerry Cantrell and wrote Alice In Chains, a self-titled and superlative work, worth listening to every track; Mike McCready returned to being the guitarist for Pearl Jam and released an album of transition with Vedder and company like No Code; Martin soon after would create a musical project with Peter Buck of R.E.M. called Tuatara (7 albums so far); Baker Saunders continued playing bass with the Walkabouts until 1999, when he died of a heroin overdose. Layne joined him three years later.
The "mad season" was over.
«Let each season contain all the others, and let the present embrace the past with memory and the future with anticipation».
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 River of Deceit (05:04)
My pain is self-chosen
At least, so The Prophet says
I could either burn
Or cut off my pride and buy some time
A head full of lies is the weight, tied to my waist
The River of Deceit pulls down, oh oh
The only direction we flow is down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
My pain is self-chosen
At least I believe it to be
I could either drown
Or pull off my skin and swim to shore
Now I can grow a beautiful shell for all to see
The River of Deceit pulls down, yeah
The only direction we flow is down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
The pain is self-chosen, yeah
Our pain is self-chosen
04 I'm Above (05:45)
For clear space and soundess of mind
I've let you play me for some time
One can only receive and retain
But the lies you recite for your gain
So you rely on my faith in your kind
Or rather continue to pretend that I'm blind
You say I made your life a living hell
And yet still let me pay you when I fell
How is it you're feeling so uneasy?
How is it that I feel fine?
Life reveals what is dealt through seasons
Circle comes around each time
I've been blessed with eyes to see this
Behind the unwhole truth you hide
Bite to remind the bitten, bigger
Mouth repaying tenfold wide
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
Try to keep bad blood in the past
Never thought a chance, a chance it would last
I have strength enough, enough to forgive
I desire peace where I live
I've been blessed with eyes to see this
Behind the unwhole truth you hide
Bite to remind the bitten, bigger
Mouth repaying tenfold wide
How is it you're feeling so uneasy?
How is it that I feel fine?
Life reveals what is dealt through seasons
Circle comes around each time
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
07 I Don't Know Anything (05:01)
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? Oh yeah
Why the fighting and the coming down, am I sane?
I don't know, yeah
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who to be
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? Oh yeah
Why the fighting and the coming down, am I sane?
I don't know
When the teacher put the ruler down on my hand
I laugh!
Cross my heart and hide reliever in trails of blood,
I love?!?
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who to be
Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? Oh yeah
Why the fighting and the coming down, am I sane?
I don't know
When the teacher put the ruler down on my hand
I laugh!
Cross my heart and hide reliever in trails of blood,
I love?!?
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Other reviews
By Rooster
Staley’s raw and damned singing, the true protagonist, manages to express itself in all its natural essence.
The strong emotions that emerge are the true success of 'Above', one of the last masterpieces produced by Seattle’s brief, intense, and frenetic rock period.
By sausalito
This album is perhaps the artistic pinnacle of Seattle grunge, the result of a supergroup including the great Layne Staley.
Layne Staley expressed emotions and poetry in a much deeper way: something especially demonstrated in the eponymous Alice in Chains album released a few months later.
By treno
Blues and Hard rock blend into a brew of sadness and anguish that emerges in tracks like 'I Don’t Know Anything.'
'River of Deceit,' the gem of the album, introduces a very sad track with a dark text which transforms into an incredible live version.
By Nevskji
"Mike McCready’s guitar work on this album is a masterpiece, balancing electric outbursts and sweetness in perfect harmony."
"Layne Staley once again confirms the extraordinary talent bestowed upon him — a voice capable of stirring emotions and dreaming."
By Black Creep
Every note is as if a bullet fired to the heart.
'Above' is an unrepeatable work, it has something tremendously magical, it enters your soul making you experience many unique emotions.
